Are things back to "normal"?

Doodie has actually had some "normal" looking bowel movements lately. Woo hoo! He's still going on his own, without laxatives, about once a day, sometimes more. If he does skip a day he makes up for it the next day. And not all of the movements are "normal" looking, but I think it's a good sign that some are.

His diet the last 5 days has consisted of Easter candy. I'm curious to see what happens when that's all gone! I think they have all three finally emptied out their baskets, so we'll be back to normal food soon.

It's probably time to go get him weighed again, too. If he still hasn't gained any weight since January, I think it will be time to find a new pediatrician and get him in for a talk about it.

Here's the best HD shirt EVAR! And on the cutest HD kid EVAR if I do say so myself. :D

Doodie Update

We've had Alasdair off of his senna laxative now for about 4 weeks. I've been really focused on keeping his diet super high in fiber and keeping his calorie/fat content up for some weight gain. So far, he's been having "regular" bms most of the time. Almost every day anyway, and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. But their consistency is NOT normal. I guess as long as he's going that's a good thing.

I also had one of those "aha!" moments today. Doodie is a grazer. He's never been a champion eater at meal or snack time, which makes it tricky to keep his weight up (hence the high calorie/high fat diet to make every bite he DOES take count). There are times when he only takes 3 or 4 bites of his dinner and then leaves the table. Other times he won't even come to the table at all. And inevitably he complains about being hungry 15 minutes after the rest of us have finished and cleaned up. He does go and grab himself oranges or apples or pears out of the fruit drawer in the fridge and eats a lot of that throughout the day. So, I've started leaving his meals on the table.

This morning I offered him oatmeal made with half and half and flax, sliced plums, grapes and his meal replacement shake that he didn't drink last night. At first he ate the fruit and half his shake. Both he and Maeve asked for more fruit so I gave them more and he ate that, too. Then 30 minutes later he said he was hungry so i told him to go eat his oatmeal. And he did! and the rest of his shake, and the fruit that Maeve left on her plate!

He did this the other night at dinner and over the weekend at lunch. So I think for him I'm going to leave his meals sitting out so he can graze on them, assuming it's not something that's going to get completely gross in a couple of hours. And perhaps set out a snack bowl with some things that are easily accessible for him. Maybe just letting him graze all day long will ensure that he actually eats enough food and can gain some weight!

HD is not fun.

After four days of no bowel movements and still on a full dose of laxative, I had to do something I've never done before: give a 2 year old an enema. Twice. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't hard either. Having read many times about poor mothers having to give their HD kids enemas, I was prepared for the worst. I had myself draped in a towel ready for some massive explosion of brown smelly goo. But I have to say it went much better than I expected.

First, he thought the enema bottle "tickled". Good grief.
Second, he wasn't bothered at all by the filling of his colon with cold liquid.
Third, there was no explosion as I removed the bottle.
Fourth, the look on his little face when he realized he was gonna go after he stood up was hilarious. (I was a little preoccupied so I didn't get a photo).

Once I realized he wasn't going to explode on me, we just put on a diaper and followed him around. After about 2 minutes we changed his diaper. Then maybe 5 minutes later we changed another one. Neither was overloaded or totally disgusting. And that was all he had. The next morning we did it again, with only one diaper resulting. Luckily after that he started going on his own, still on the laxative, of course.

This time we dodged the bullet of having to return to Children's Hospital for an "official" enema and x-rays and all kinds of other horrible things. (knock on wood)

Slow Motility

We've been giving Doodie the Little Tummies Laxative now for just over two weeks. He was having 2 - 3 bowel movements every day and I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Did he really have that much in there to get rid of? Or was his food just passing through at a faster rate because of the laxative. I am admittedly NOT a laxative expert as some HD parents are. I know all about fiber, healthy high fat diets and diaper rash creams and remedies for weeping rash. I suppose now is the time I should learn about the wide world of senna.

I decided last Thursday to half the dose we had been giving him, hoping we could slowly wean him off of it and see if his constipation had been relieved. The nurse at Children's called last week to check on him and said that was a good plan. Just play with the dosage, but warned us that a lot of HD kids are on laxatives long term. I'm unsure about how that relates to us. I mean, he's been 100% constipation free for 2 1/2 years. It seems weird that just all of a sudden he would turn into a laxative dependant kid. The doc said physically he's fine as far as pull thru/scar tissue stuff goes. His diet hasn't changed. I don't know.

Anyway. We've been giving him half the dosage for about 4 days now. Today he didn't have any bowel movements at all. And last Friday on the second day of his reduced dose his dad told me he had a 4 pound diaper, all BM. Seriously? The kid only weighs 28 pounds!! I'm thinking in addition to our lifetime supply of Desitin that we keep on hand, we'll be adding the Little Tummies for at least the foreseeable future. I just hope this isn't a downward trend in his health. Keep your fingers and toes crossed!!

I think I'm back!

It's been a few months, and lots of things have changed in my life. I'm selling our house, moving, pulling my oldest out of Catholic school because we can't afford it, and getting divorced. After a few weeks to heal some and a great therapist and friends to cry with, I feel I can now continue down my little journey forged through the pooh. So, here are my updates on the kids!

Michaela: she still continues to have small accidents. We keep to a high fiber diet as a regular in our house, but otherwise, she's not on any Miralax, soy, probiotics or anything else anymore. None of it ever worked for her. But she doesn't seem to be constipated anymore. I think her "accidents" are from lack of paying attention at this point.

Maeve: she is completely 100% diaper free! Right after that last post in August, she never really looked back. She's had a handful of accidents, but she's not even 4 yet, so I can deal. She's much better that Michaela ever was at this age, so I'm thankful for that!!

Alasdair: he's a little more complicated. We see his surgeon every year in January for his check-ups post pull-thru surgery for his Hirschsprung's. Last January at 18 months old he finally hit 20 pounds, thanks to his high fat-high calorie diet. He was doing great! In June when he turned 2 he was 28 pounds! So we figured we could put him on the same diet everyone else is on in the house, like 2% milk instead of whole cut with half/half, eliminate the nutrition drink at night cut with half/half, cut down the butter and fats, etc. He continued to do well until about October. His bowel movements started to get erratic. He would not go for 1 - 2 days, then he'd go 2 or 3 times in one day, and they were huge blow-out poohs that stunk to high heaven. But he wasn't distended, he didn't have a fever, and his appetite hadn't changed, so I wasn't too worried about enterocolitis. This continued until last week when we saw our surgeon for our check up. He weighed in at 27 1/2 pounds. Uh. Yeah. While they were happy with is growth chart having gained 8 pounds in 1 year, I'm not so thrilled with the fact that he didn't gain anything at all in 6 months. I know that weight gain slows down as they get older, but it shouldn't stop altogether. So, he's back on the high fat-high calorie diet. And we were told to give him a senna laxative (Little Tummies). We give it to him once a day and it's definitely gotten things moving. So far he's had between 1 and 3 bms every day since we started giving it to him. And while they still smell fairly raunchy, they are returning to a more normal consistency (slowly) and a better color. So we'll continue with this until things get back to normal, keep him on his diet until his birthday in June, and hope that we will be able to take him off the senna soon. The prospect of having to use it long term is not an appealing one.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

Michaela: who cares!!
Maeve: SEE BELOW!!
Alasdair: who cares!!

Okay everyone.

MAEVE.

POOPED.

IN.

THE.

POTTY.

All week long!! She hasn't had an incident in her pants since last Saturday! And we even still have 1 bribe gift left on the counter. :) So i'll pick up some candies to continue the bribery on a scaled down level.

But, by jove, I think she's got it!

At least a little good news

Michaela: 1 accident recently
Maeve: See post
Alasdair: normal as ever

I've been going through some life-changing events this last couple of weeks, and not good ones, so my desire and ability to blog has been squashed for now. But I did feel it necessary to at least mention the one really great thing that has happened:

MAEVE POOPED IN THE POTTY.

Seriously. Saturday she did once, and Sunday TWICE!! I took her to the store and bought a bunch of bribery goodies. Hopefully we got enough of them so that she'll create a good habit before we run out.

So, yay!! And check back now and again. Someday I'll feel good enough to get back to regular blogging.

Dr. Phil, here we come!

Michaela: doing okay
Maeve: still pooping in her pants
Alasdair: normal poops, no rash

I'm terrible at blogging during the summer. I apologize for the huge lapse in between posts. Maybe once school is back in session and we're back on a normal routine I'll be able to sit down more regularly and vent.

Our struggle lately is still trying to get Maeve to poop in the potty. She goes into her closet in her bedroom and lays it down in there. I've started making her clean it up by having to remove her own pants and get the pooh out from her panties/pants and into the toilet. Then I help her clean up because she would never be able to get herself clean. But you know what? She HATES it. And God forbid she gets poop on her fingers or legs. She absolutely freaks out. So, while I see this as a step in the right direction, it still hasn't curbed the behavior. So now, we're tryin' it Dr. Phil's way. Next time she does it I'm going to make her sit in a chair IN her poop for a spell before I make her clean it up. I'm not sure she'll care all that much, but we'll see.

It's so frustrating. And you know, I'd even be happy if she wanted to go in a diaper, as long as she would just come and say, "Mom, I need a diaper to poop in." At least I wouldn't have to clean up the huge mess. But no. She's supposed to go off to preschool next month fully potty trained, but that's obviously not going to happen. I'm going to send her anyway. I mean, what are the odds that she'll crap her pants during the 6 hours of preschool she's in each week?

What's that, you say? 100%?

Yeah. I know.

*sigh*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Michaela: having minor issues
Maeve: 1
Alasdair: .5

So, we're going camping this weekend. I spent the majority of the day trying to squeeze in work, cleaning up, packing and grocery shopping, plus keeping the kiddos happy. During my "lunch break" I ran out to get gas, get some produce, run by the bank and hit Costco. Usually our ritual for grocery shopping is Costco, followed immediately by Top Foods. And it's usually dinner time. So right after Costco when the kids are starting to whine and drive me insane, we get them berry smoothies from the food court at Costco. I shit you not, all three of my kids can down them in about 20 minutes flat. They don't stop to whine, fight, yell or even breathe! It's amazing. So that's what my kids had for "lunch" today. An apple in the car, a sucker from the bank teller, and a berry smoothie from Costco. I'm a great mom. :)

The rest of the plan was to finish out my work day, feed the kids then run back out to do the main grocery shopping. But it turned out that Mike was leaving for the evening later than I expected, so as they kids were eating dinner, I escaped to do the shopping on my own. (yay!!!) Upon my return I find out that Maeve had done her "doodie" for Mike today, but she wasn't wearing any panties under her dress and it fell right onto the living room carpet! HAHAHAHAHA!!! While I feel marginally bad for Mike having to clean it up, I'm more elated that it wasn't ME for once. :D

Off to Icicle Creek tomorrow for a relaxing weekend of mojitos, pina coladas, junk food, reading and river swimming. :D

Poop: 1. Me: 0.

Michaela: no accidents
Maeve: 5 successful trips to the toilet for pee, four pairs of peed in panties, two pairs of wet shorts, one pair of pooped in panties
Alasdair: 2

Oh. My. Lord.

It was a day from hell today. Everyone keeps telling me to "not count" today, but it's hard to not count it when you're still living it. I took all three kids to the zoo today with my sister's family. We were there for over 5 hours. No naps. No extra money for bribery and sugary snacks. It was fun and it sucked all at the same time.

Frist off, Michaela was a trooper (as was my sister's family). It's not easy to go to a place like the zoo with a 3 1/2 year old who is potty training. It takes a long LONG time to get through places, and you end up seeing every single bathroom in the whole place more than once.

Here's a rundown to the best of my memory. I'm secretly trying to block it out to save my sanity.
Leave my house.
Get gas.
Stop by my mom's house to try to find something that my sister lost.
Feed the kids the lunch I packed for the zoo in the car at my mom's house.
Drive to the zoo.
Get in to the zoo.
See the giraffes and some ostriches.
Take Maeve to the bathroom.
See hippos and lions.
Take Maeve to the bathroom because she's digging at her butt.
See the tapir, elephants, orangutans, siamangs.
Take Maeve to the bathroom because she's digging at her butt again.
See the raptors, tigers, sloth bears, sun bear, penguins.
Take Maeve to the bathroom because she's digging for gold.
Maeve refuses to try to poop on the potty.
We get 20 feet from the bathroom door and she says she has to go potty.
I tell her too bad.
Eat a snack at the food court.
Maeve pees next to the table.
Clean up Maeve and change her panties and shorts.
Change Doodie's rancid fruit diaper.
Other adults and older kids go to the nocturnal house.
Maeve pees while squatting on the park bench outside.
Change Maeve's panties and shorts.
But I'm out of shorts and panties.
Put Maeve in Michaela's panties and tell her she's not allowed to get out of the wagon now because she's half naked.
See colobus monkeys and the gorillas.
Maeve tells me she has to pee.
I tell her too bad.
She pees in the wagon.
She has to sit in the pee until we leave.
I pick up Doodie and put him on my hip.
I feel the wet spot on his shorts.
I set him down and notice that his newest rancid fruit diaper has leaked all over his shorts.
And on my shirt.
Change Doodie's diaper and let him go bottomless for the rest of the afternoon.
See the flamingos, some other crappy birds and the lame ass petting zoo (complete with miniature cows that look like full grown cow bodies on pig legs).
Leave the zoo before I start crying like an idiot in front of a bunch of strangers.
Get home and feed the kids fruit snacks while dinner is cooking.
Maeve pees in the back yard.
Eat dinner.
Bath.
Jammies.
Maeve poops in her pants.
Clean up, story, bedtime.

Now I'm drinking a mojito and trying to forget to day ever happened. :)

I'll post some pics of the trip and the aftermath after I dig out my computer from under the laundry pile and attempt to get the photos off my camera's memory card.

Kind of a Shitty Day

Michaela: 1 small accident
Maeve: 3 craps in her pants
Alasdair: 5

The day itself wasn't all that shitty. A little hectic here and there, but good lord! How much poop can one woman tolerate in 12 hours?? I've just totally had it with Maeve and her panty pooping. I have found her "place" though. She goes into the closet in her room and does it there. But this evening she did it at the library. So I wouldn't let her check out any books, I made her ride home (much to the dismay of my other kids) with her pants full, and then I made her go straight to bed an hour early after I cleaned her up. Honestly, I just don't know how to nip this one in the bud. She is supposed to be completely potty trained by the end of August so that she can go to preschool, but I just don't see that happening. Plus, I am just the kind of person who can't deal with this type of stubborn behavior. It's illogical and it drives me crazy. I know, I know. Why do I have three kids if i can't stand illogical people? I DON'T KNOW.

And Alasdair has been having a lot of movements too. So far the weepy rash hasn't come back, but it is red. So I've been slathering him in Desitin and keeping him comfortable at least.

One more day to go, and then it's my sitter's turn to change poopie diapers for a while. Hallelujah!!

Debonair Doodie

Michaela: no accidents lately
Maeve: simply will NOT use the toilet for #2
Alasdair: lots of summer fruit = excess poops and diaper rash :(

I actually had to pull out the Ilex cream. We haven't had to do that in quite a while for Doodie. But he was just eating SO much fruit that his little bum couldn't take it. In just a few hours we went from sort of red to total skin breakdown. But the Ilex finally took care of it. Honestly, if anyone has a kid with Hirschsprung's and you haven't found Ilex yet, take my word for it. Use it. It's worth every penny you spend on it to make your kid's butt feel better. And I'm pretty sure unless your kid has HD you don't really know what a diaper rash is. :)

Anyway, we're still struggling with Maeve to get her to use the toilet for pooping in. She told me the other day that she was scared she would get flushed down, which is a load of crap, no pun intended. She pees without fail all the time on the toilet. So I decided to get down and dirty with her like I did with Michaela (see previous post). So far I've thrown out her Barbies, her Polly Pockets, and two of her favorite nighttime buddies. I've also made her stop playing with Michaela and the neighbor girl next door (which was a huge screaming fit) and I've made her go to bed early twice. I really don't want to have to get mean and take away her Elmo or her kickit (her favorite handmade baby blanket), but I might have to. Nothing seems to phase her long enough to get her to want it back. Ugh.

Here's a nice photo to end the day. My Dapper Doodie:

Happy Father's Day!!

Michaela: no accidents
Maeve: 1 HUUUUUGE crap in her panties
Alasdair: 3, plus a rash that's getting out of hand

So, I put Maeve in a diaper today. She actually said I should, and I was so angry at the huge dumper she took in her pants today that I actually did make her nap in a diaper. After she woke up I put her back in some underwear, but I told her that I was going to start "throwing away" her toys tomorrow every time she poops in her pants. It sounds extreme and nasty, but you know what? it worked for Michaela and she was younger than Maeve is now. It's turned into a power struggle. It's not about learning to use the toilet and learning about the feeling when you have to go. She knows damn well when she's got to go because she leaves the room, goes somewhere quiet and comes back poopy. When I did this with Michaela it took 1 weekend. Day 1 I put all her movies in a garbage sack and "threw them away" by putting them out of sight in our spare room. Day 2 I put all her books in a sack and did the same thing. Day 3 it was all her baby dolls. Day 4, did not poop in her pants again, unless it was a real honest to goodness accident. So, i'm gonna get tough with Maeve and see how it goes.

And Doodie has been eating too much fresh fruit I think. Now, any good parent might say, "HA! No such thing!" However, these would not be the parents of a child with Hirschsprung's Disease. His diapers are gross and just smell like recycled fruit, but they are also giving him The Rash. I went straight to the Ilex cream, it was that bad. But even the Ilex didn't do anything the first two times I put it on. Wha?? So, tomorrow I'm going to have to double up on the diaper changes and see if we can get the rash under control before it gets to the bleeding stage. Poor baby!!

My Cutie Patootie Doodie

Michaela: skids
Maeve: still won't poop in the toilet
Alasdair: normal as ever!

We think that Maeve is constipated because she doesn't want to poo on the potty yet, so she holds it until she can't anymore and then it starts to hurt. We're gonna sneak some Miralax into her drinks and see if that helps her go more often. I'm still not sure how to get her to go on the potty, but going is better than not going, regardless of where she does it. It makes me nervous though. Michaela was also very regular until she was potty training. Then she got constipated because she didn't want to go on the potty and she's pretty much been plugged up ever since. So I'm hoping to avoid any long-term issues with Maeve.

On a cuter note, Doodie got lots of attention from strangers today. This morning we went to the See Kai Run warehouse sale to get him some new shoes. He was wearing his current pair and was strapped into the stroller with his SKR balloon tied to it. When we got to the register they commented on his shoes and asked if they could take his picture, so I said yes. Then later in the day we hit Sorticulture up here at Legion Park. It's like a Garden Art fair. The kids got restless after like 2 minutes, so I gave them their "Yan-yan" snack. It took about 30.6 seconds for Doodie to be covered in chocolate, but enjoying himself thoroughly. We had one couple start giggling at him because he was adorable, then a few minutes later these 3 ladies caught sight of him and asked if they could take his picture. :) I love it when strangers think my kids are cute.

**Updated to add some photos of the two youngest in all their chocolate glory:

I actually DID survive the husband's Leave of Absence

Michaela: smears and streaks, and she peed her pants
Maeve: every day she poops in her pannies
Alasdair: healthy as a Hirschsprung's Horse!

So, yeah, I didn't exactly finish my posts the week my husband was out of town, but I did survive. It was a strenuous and busy week though.

Lately we've been trying to figure out the enigma that is Michaela. We (I) took her to her doctor and we discussed her behavior. I found the whole appointment less than helpful. He basically just wrote her a prescription for Adderall and sent me on my way. We decided to hold off on it for right now. We're going to try some things at home this summer to get her to be able to concentrate more and follow through with things. Then, when school starts back up i'll speak with her new teacher, get weekly updates from her for 4-6 weeks, and then we'll see where things are at. We may want to try the medication then. It's a really hard step for me to take, partially because I feel like a bad parent and that her inability to focus and follow directions is my fault. I can't distinguish between this being HER problem or MY problem. Ugh.

But school is out in a day and a half and i'm ramping up a "schedule" for all 3 kids so that they aren't just running around like wild monkeys all day long for 2 1/2 months. And the weather has been unseasonably nice for Seattle and we've been taking full advantage of that. Maeve continues to crap in her pants with no resolution to that problem in sight. I'm not sure she'll actually be going to preschool in the fall because she's got to be able to go. I should probably have more faith in the girl, but I don't. She's too stubborn for her own good. :)

Alasdair is blooming in the language department. His few words up until now have really only been the first half of the word, with a few exceptions. But he's almost finishing some of the words now and picking up on some bigger ones. I also noticed that he copied Maeve's words in the car today. Maybe this summer he'll take some huge strides in that area.

And some other good news: Maeve learned how to pedal on her "big girl bike" and Michaela can now ride her bike without training wheels! Yay!